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Denver's dailies unlikely to reduce print days

Novel Detroit plan to print three days a week undertaken

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact), Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 17, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Denver's newspaper owners haven't contemplated copying a dramatic plan to save two newspapers in Detroit, executives with the parent companies of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post said Tuesday.

The Rocky is up for sale, and Denver could be a one-newspaper town early next year if a buyer isn't found.

In Detroit, the owners took a different route in the face of drastic economic times. They announced Tuesday that they would offer home delivery only three days a week, a first for any metropolitan daily newspaper.

"As strange as this might sound, although we have complications and challenges in Denver, Denver overall is a reasonably robust market, especially compared to some other markets," said Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps.

"It's just a big change in a major market," Boehne said of the Detroit plan. "I would assume there is no going back. But even by that, I don't want to imply this is the wrong way, or they might be going in the wrong direction. I'm sure they put a lot of thought and study into it."

Detroit's newspapers, facing steep revenue declines, as are Denver's dailies, said that they would deliver papers to homes on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and otherwise focus on online and condensed print editions.

Detroit's papers operate under a joint operating agreement - a JOA - controlled by the Gannett Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press. Denver Post Publisher William Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group owns the Detroit News.

Singleton said through a spokeswoman that nothing like Detroit "is scheduled for Denver."

Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, said the Detroit strategy at first blush makes sense mathematically.

A metro daily newspaper generates up to 50 percent of its advertising revenue on Sunday, and only a small percentage on Monday and Tuesday. So one can theoretically eliminate home delivery on the weaker days, cut printing, delivery and staffing costs and not greatly affect overall revenue.

The risk is if too many readers decide they can live without the newspaper on the other days. If the paper loses readers, advertisers will follow, "and then you've killed the golden goose," Rosenstiel said.

The Detroit plan has been in the works since last spring, with market testing over the summer, Edmonds said.

"I don't think that stuff could be done between now and the middle of January," Edmonds said, referring to the tight timetable Scripps has set for finding a buyer for the Rocky. Analysts have said there's little chance Scripps will find a buyer.

Pressed on whether the Detroit strategy still could be an option for Scripps in Denver, Boehne indicated that is a difficult question to answer.

"Well, we're obviously in a period where we will look at everything," Boehne said. "But by saying that, I do not want to suggest that this has been some kind of working model. Because it hasn't been. Could this be a model for Denver? I don't know. We have very different markets and (in Detroit) this involves both papers."

Boehne also said he doesn't know a lot of the details about the Detroit plan.

"How are they looking at this? Are they playing offense or defense? Ultimately, is this something to just get them through a difficult economic time or is it something more permanent? You do have to give them credit for being bold, though."

Rosenstiel instead said it might make sense for a second "paper" to become an online-newspaper only, and follow a guerrilla strategy of "picking your shots" in terms of coverage with a smaller staff and cost structure. "You wouldn't need a JOA," he said. Somebody could just start the online paper.

smithje@RockyMountainNews.com, or 303-954-5155